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CLEVELAND, OH, May 5, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For most people, the crimes of Ariel Castro would be unforgivable. But for Michelle Knight, one of his victims, refusing to hate the man who repeatedly raped, tortured, and beat her until she lost five of the babies she conceived during her hellish decade of imprisonment is “the way of life.”

Knight, a mother of one, was the first of three women kidnapped and locked inside Ariel Castro's urban prison. Taken off the street in August 2002 at age 21, she spent nearly 11 years in his Cleveland home. Over the next two years, Castro abducted Amanda Berry, just one day before her 17th birthday, and Gina DeJesus, then only 14 years old.

Castro kept the three malnourished and locked in chains. When they became pregnant, he beat them until they miscarried, a tragic tale Knight recounts in her new memoir, Finding Me. “Reliving it,” she said, is the “hardest part to do.”

Harder, even, than forgiving Castro.

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NBC Today reporter Savannah Guthrie told Knight during an interview that aired on Monday, “One of the things I was really blown away by when we talked before was you told me you were able to forgive Ariel Castro.”

Knight explained, “If I did something wrong, even if it was a small thing, I would want somebody to forgive me, so I can forgive him for what he [has] done wrong, because that’s the way of life.”

“He was a human being, and every human being needs to be loved, even though they did something wrong,” she said.

In the end, Knight may have been able to forgive her tormentor more readily than he did himself. Ariel Castro committed suicide on September 3, hanging himself with a bed sheet inside his cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio – just months after being sentenced to “life plus 1,000 years.”

The news of his suicide only caused her further sorrow.

“I was saddened by it but also confused at the same time,” Knight said. “Like, why would he hurt his children like that? Why would he leave them?”

Knight's plight came to an end on May 6, 2013 – one year ago tomorrow – when the women broke free, and Amanda Berry called authorities. Castro fathered one child with Berry, their six-year-old daughter, Jocelyn.

In the 911 call, Berry called the child, who was conceived in torturous rape, “sweetheart.”

Police immediately began excavating the area for the bodies of the unborn babies Castro had killed.

For Knight, the anniversary is “just a day I wish would go past,” she said, so she can live her life.

Castro could have become the first American on death row for killing an unborn child, something that displeased some abortion supporters. At the time Daily Beast editor Michelle Goldberg said the miscarriages “aren't murder,” and if he were convicted of murder, it would be “an injustice.”

Castro blamed his actions on his porn addiction. “My addiction to pornography and my sexual problem has taken a toll on my mind. I was victim as a child, and it just kept going,” he told Cuyahoga County Judge Michael Russo.

“He was obsessed with prostitutes,” Knight had said. She added today, “He thought the whole thing that he was doing was normal.”

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Through it all, she says she kept her strong faith, nourishing the memory of her son. Her child, Joey, who is now 14, was adopted by another family while she was in captivity. “I'm very proud of him for all the accomplishments he has achieved” she said, adding that she hopes she will see him again.

In order to make a new start of her own, Knight has changed her name to Lillian Rose Lee and goes by Lilly.

“I would want everybody to know I'm doing just fine, and everything is really exciting right now.” She just recorded her first song. “It's just an awesome life right now.”